Article I Can’t Watch the World Burn, Because the Fire Will Burn Me First
Article I Can’t Watch the World Burn, Because the Fire Will Burn Me First
Quote:The image* circulating across social media — a group of Black women calmly drinking coffee atop a skyscraper while the city burns below — captures the fury, exhaustion, and clarity many of us feel after Election 2024. The final exit polls are in: 92% of Black women voted for Kamala Harris, while 53% of white women threw their support behind Donald Trump. Again.
This moment isn’t just about disappointment; it’s about the stark truth that Black women in America are often called to hold the line alone. For centuries, we’ve carried the weight of civic responsibility, and the lack of reciprocity from others — especially those who benefit the most from the systems we fight to dismantle — is nothing short of betrayal. It’s a betrayal with consequences. Fire spreads. And in this white supremacist hellscape, the flames always consume us first.
Medium, LesieMac, November 25 2024.
https://medium.com/@LeslieMac/i-cant-watch-the-world-burn-because-the-fire-will-burn-me-first-ae2fa7d68511
Quote:The image* circulating across social media — a group of Black women calmly drinking coffee atop a skyscraper while the city burns below — captures the fury, exhaustion, and clarity many of us feel after Election 2024. The final exit polls are in: 92% of Black women voted for Kamala Harris, while 53% of white women threw their support behind Donald Trump. Again.
This moment isn’t just about disappointment; it’s about the stark truth that Black women in America are often called to hold the line alone. For centuries, we’ve carried the weight of civic responsibility, and the lack of reciprocity from others — especially those who benefit the most from the systems we fight to dismantle — is nothing short of betrayal. It’s a betrayal with consequences. Fire spreads. And in this white supremacist hellscape, the flames always consume us first.
Claiming that black women are the only ones pushing back on regressive ideas that the West is sinking into is, to say the least, not being fair to white women and the massive amount of work they put into this. In fact a big thing in liberal feminism is precisely that it always has to be about something, anything other than women's rights. So you get to a point where white feminists need to say hijabs are empowering just because racial issues trump sexism, and this insane stance is common precisely because of women's tendency to prioritise everyone but themselves.
Furthermore I don't think anyone expects black women to lead the charge because people tend to ignore black women and forget they exist, and white libfems have certainly not shied away from being the face of activism (though they ofc tend to be overshadowed by even the laziest wokebro). White women voting for any man their Nigel votes for does not mean that liberal women are not being proactive in "holding the line", esp when this gets muddled through needing to prioritise other groups, which you practically never see men do. Men will fixate solely on their own benefits and won't give a shit about how other groups are impacted (anti-trans gay men don't give a shit about child transitioning or lesbians, civil-rights black men don't give a shit about black women, liberal men only want prostitutes and drugs, and don't give a shit about any other cause and actively manipulate liberal feminist ideas for personal gain), while demanding everyone else support them because this issue is the only important one in the world.
So what I think happens is that white men will vote for rich white supremacists because they want to be in his shoes, their wives will vote for the same candidate because hubby's rants sound very self-assured and I'm isolated from my friends due to having to take care of my children + one overgrown baby all the time. Black men will vote for the candidate that looks like they will address racial issues, and if that candidate happened to act towards women the same way as Trump, I think he'd still get the same votes including from black women, because the benefit to the black community which prioritises men always needs to trump silly irrelevant women's issues.
Mere votes are not indicative of progressive views in and of themselves (which even the article acknowledges). Black women are more religious, more anti-abortion and more anti-gay (and anti-trans). I think black women auto-voting for democratic candidates is indicative more of racial issues needing to come first and above everything else, than actual progressive trends in female black communities, which as mentioned do not play out in the overall stats. Black communities are where I so often see shit like black women being told to shut up about their rape and abuse so they wouldn't "snitch" on the man in order to prioritise the black community. And don't even get me started on the anticarceral shit.